This Day On
by miss atari
Summary: Realization over video games. Mello agrees to play a game with Matt, and well... Early teen Matt and Mello!


Okay, so... this one is dedicated to eryis-blud for being the 100th reviewer of 'With Accidents'. She had asked for a story with the boys in their early teenage years and just coming to terms with their sexuality, and well... I tried that and it didn't want to work for me; the outcome of multiple rewrites ended up with this. I had a lot of fun writing this, despite the shortness. It has become extremely rare for me to actually like something I write, but I really like this piece. [: And I hope you like it, too, especially eryis-blud. I'm sorry it wasn't exactly what you wanted, but I tried!

Enjoy.

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In the center of the old mansion, beside the dining room and across from the foyer that brought unsuspecting children into their world, was the playroom. It was the biggest room in the old orphanage, and it was where the majority of the children gathered after class or nap time, depending on your age. The room was spacious and clean, save for abandoned toys littering the floor and dirt that had been collecting on the bottom of worn shoes. And, it was there, in that very room, that Matt realized that he looked at his best friend in a different light.

It was also in that room that he decided he wouldn't tell Mello; not because he feared for his life, because he did, but because he wasn't sure how he would be taken. Matt had seen first hand the trauma that the blond boy had inflicted upon the other children that got in his way, and the idea of being Mello's new punching bag wasn't exactly on Matt's list of things to become. His feelings, however immature they were, would be locked away and kept inside. It was for the best, as they had been taught that emotions were useless things to have. Mello was the perfect picture of this, albeit his temper when it came to those who were ahead of him in this race for death. That was Matt's second reason behind not wanting to tell Mello. The third reason, well… what thirteen year old can honestly say he's in love with his best friend? Matt could, but would Mello believe him? Most likely not.

Matt could imagine telling Mello if they were older and more experienced, like say sixteen. He could picture it in his head as he confessed himself and rambled on about how he fallen for Mello when they were just coming into their teenage years and feeling confused. It would go smoothly and afterwards, well, that was a different story altogether. Mello would instantly jump into Matt's waiting arms and smother the redhead with kisses while he worked on undressing them both. Oh, it would be a good day for Matt, but that would only happen if they were older and had a lot more experience.

"Matt," a voice evaded his train of thought. "Link just died."

"What?" Great job, Matt.

"Link, he uh… just died." Mello pointed to their privately owned television.

Privately owned because Matt would stay up all hours of the night to play games while the children downstairs, inconveniently located near the playroom, tried to sleep. It kept them awake most nights and eventually the staff gave him his own television because of that.

"What? Crap!" Matt shouted; whether at the television for killing Link or at himself for not paying closer attention, he wasn't sure. However, he completely blamed Mello for his lapse in judgment, as he had been thinking about the blond boy when his character took the plunge.

Matt, crestfallen by this, stared at the screen like he had been the one killed and not Link. His hands trembled to the point that he actually dropped the controller, listening as it sounded with an annoying _clunk!_ against the hardwood floor. Green eyes were wide, filled with sadness over the fictional character's death, and his expression was just as depressing. He had been killed, and he hadn't won the game. Matt never died and he never saved a game, as he found the idea of saving his games to be useless when he could zoom through it with no problem.

"Matt, it's just a game." Mello stated, rolling his eyes at his friend as he shut the book he had been studying for their test the next day. "Do something else."

"I don't want to," Matt pouted stubbornly as he crossed his arms over his chest. Yes, he was bratty when it came to being told to 'do something else'. Matt didn't want to do anything else; he wouldn't be Matt if he didn't play video games!

"If you do something else I'll play with you afterwards," Mello offered - bribed - him.

"If you play now I'll do something else afterwards," Matt twisted his words around. For a genius he wasn't very witty.

Mello arched an eyebrow at Matt, knowing that the redhead was probably lying about it. It was just a way to say "yeah, I'll do something else if you do what I want first", and they never would get around to doing what Mello wanted. "Okay, fine."

"Really?" Matt's eyes lit up and a smile crept onto his face. "You'll play Zelda with me?"

"Yeah, but what's it about?" Mello asked, feigning interest.

"Okay, well, it's about Link trying to find and rescue Zelda," Matt prattled on about what they would be playing and Mello listened, completely unfazed by Matt's enthusiasm towards a made up reality.

This was pretty normal in their relationship, and as much as Mello didn't want to admit it, he actually liked listening to Matt babble on about his video games and what each one was about. Things had been like this since they had met when Matt first came into the orphanage, and that had been a little over four years ago. Matt was nine and Mello was just turning ten, so there really wasn't much of an age difference between either boy, though sometimes Mello begged to differ. Mello wasn't sure he could handle Matt if he was any other way but geeky. Geeky at the tender age of thirteen, great. Go figure. That would definitely work when trying to succeed L.

"Matt?" Mello muttered, slipping off the bed behind the boy in question and sitting directly beside him. "Why is Link trying to find Zelda?"

Matt blinked, choked on the storyline that was falling from his lips and looked over at the other boy. "What?"

"Link, why is he trying to find her?" Mello inquired a second time, picking up the controller from the floor in front of Matt's crossed legs.

"Oh, that's easy! Link loves Zelda, of course!" Matt exclaimed happily.

Okay, well, there was more to it than Link loving Zelda, but Matt skipped over that part and got down to the obvious-- or at least obvious in his opinion. Really, was there any point in trying to explain to Mello that Link was usually given the task of finding and rescuing the princess along with Hyrule? Not to say that Mello wasn't able to comprehend the game's storyline, because he totally could. It was just easier to put in such terms.

"Okaaaay," Mello shrugged. "Let's play."

"Yes!" Matt shouted a little too eagerly while he internally cheered this victory. "So, what you do is…"

Matt hesitantly placed his hands over Mello's own as he positioned the blond boy's fingers over the buttons, explaining to him which actions each button was accountable for. The feeling of skin on skin contact, though such an innocent act, had Matt's mind reeling. It felt different, but at the same time it felt nice. The smooth skin of Mello's knuckles brushing along the palms of his hands as he moved each finger over one circular button and then another; the shiver that it sent down his spine as the blond scooted closer towards him. It all felt nice, and Matt knew that if he didn't stop or get away fast, there would be more explaining to do than just giving Mello simple instructions on how to play a game. And that kind of thing wasn't something Matt was ready to explain at such a young age, even though he was more than certain that Mello knew exactly where he was coming from.

Mello zoned out somewhere between "this button is how you use your sword" and "you use this pad to walk different directions". He had stopped paying attention to the words that were coming from Matt and instead found himself more interested in how delicately hesitant Matt was with his hands. Of course, like a lot of best friends, they had held hands before and thought nothing about it, but this was different. There was something more behind Matt moving his fingers ever-so-softly along the small controller. Something Mello was curious about.

"Matt?"

"Yeah?" Matt looked up from their hands to meet Mello's gaze.

"You said Link loves Zelda, right?" Mello's voice grew soft, and his eyes gingerly portrayed a sudden flash of confusion. "… does that mean you know what love feels like?"

"Huh? N-no, of course n-not!" Matt stammered, tearing away from Mello's eyes as if Mello had finally realized something.

"Oh… I see," Mello looked down at their hands, watching as Matt's fingers continued to run along his. A tiny smile crossed his lips, and he knew that Matt was lying.

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Look, a not so bad-ass Mello. :x I did him this way because this is before he went off on his own, and before his rivalry with Near bcame a significant part of his life. Plus, a softer Mello makes me smile more. I think it's cute. Anyways...

On a more humourous note, I wrote this while listening strictly to classic Disney songs. Classic Disney meaning, for me, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Tarzan and The Fox and the Hound.

Read and review, please. Thankyou.


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